If asked about the future of our country, most people would say they want to see Pakistan as a prosperous, peaceful and powerful nation, a nation renowned in the world for its “raw talent” instead of being notorious for its association with international terrorism, a constitutional state where political destiny is determined only through the power of the ballot and not through the power of the gun, even if the person holding that gun is uniformed.
No doubt, it has taken us a long time to come to this conclusion: almost six decades and four martial laws to be precise. Just a few years ago, quite honestly, most of us used to think that a messiah would zoom into the land of the pure on a flying carpet one day, a magic wand in his hand, his cape slung across his shoulders. Invincible, intelligent and honest, he would be as powerful as Superman, as talented as Ironman, as humble as Spiderman and as careful as Batman in not killing the criminal without due process of the law. In short, we would find the qualities of all super heroes in one military general!
Once he rose to power, he would swing his wand from left to right resulting in the arrest of all criminals within a matter of days, if not weeks. Then, turning towards the corrupt politicians, he would cast a spell upon them forcing them to disclose the location of their hidden treasures, all of who would later be returned to Pakistan. After that, he would wave his cape three times and eradicate corruption from every department on every level forever. The result: an egalitarian society within a month or so would come into existence with zero crime rate ruled over by a God-fearing, down-to-earth, virtuous and patriotic commando, an icon of truthfulness and honesty who would hoist the nation up to the top from the bottom down.
However, after experimenting and failing many times, we concluded that no one can possesses such extraordinary powers, not even a commander general. And to expect so much from a single person may signal a more complex psychological problem — like insanity combined with an inferiority complex and mixed with jealousy — of the whole nation. Hence, we dropped that idea altogether, though we still see the sparks of that flickering here and there.
On a serious note, no one can fix our problems in a short amount of time even if he wants to with complete sincerity and honesty. We all have to work for it, chip in one piece at a time and wait for the parliamentary process to mature while letting political governments finish their tenure without the fear of conspiratorial long marches and sit-ins. To some extent, we can appreciate the glimpses of democracy at work already: healthy competition being witnessed between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab in resolving the problems of their provinces, a consensus being achieved on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through negotiations and the electricity shortage reduced every year.
Having said that, I do not know why but when you ask the same Pakistanis about the future of Afghanistan, squirming in their seats, their voices changing into growls, they declare the Taliban a real power, the true representatives of the Pashtuns without whom Afghanistan would never attain peace. Do you see the double standards here? What we like for ourselves is modern and enlightened, a process of building collective wisdom, but what we like for our neighbours is puritanical, ambiguous and, to some extent, malicious and unfair.
On our side, we never vote for religious parties in the elections; we do not want them to come into power or guide us in state affairs in any form. But for Afghanistan we have already decided how they should govern their country and who should rule them. Elections? No way, they are not ready for it. Democracy? It is against the fundamentals of Islam. Constitution? We already have the Quran for them.
Have you heard any of our Afghan experts say we want the people of Afghanistan to decide themselves if they wnat to accept the presence of the Taliban in their country? No. Instead, we tell them, or more accurately, shove the pill known as the Afghan Taliban or the ‘good’ Taliban down their throats to interpret Islam for them, implement it in any form they like and use it to grab more power however they please.
We press the Afghan government to negotiate a peace deal with the militia or risk the country being thrown into chaos. Children would not stay safe, civilians would be blown up, embassies bombed, airports attacked and mosques converted into graveyards. Of course, we do not put this as bluntly but everyone knows what happens when negotiations with the Taliban are cancelled, delayed, interrupted or abandoned. Put it another way: this power of running an underground force, a faceless organisation that casts fear through violence is what many experts mean when they say Pakistan holds the key to peace in Afghanistan. Of course it does. The question is if this key is legitimate or not.
Let me remind you of a similar situation: a few years ago, the federal government tried to negotiate a peace deal with the Pakistani Taliban like the one we want Afghanistan to have with their Taliban. Do you remember what happened to that? How it failed? We should share our experience with the current Afghan administration and tell them the opposite of what we have been telling them all along: we would like to help you eradicate the insurgency in every way possible, that our experience in holding talks with them did not yield any positive results, it just gave them time to regroup and strike again, that the Taliban, whether Pakistani or Afghan, are our common enemies and they have no place in any state. But we will not and will stay unstable for a long time even if the Taliban takes control of Afghanistan.
The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at [email protected]